With a sound like the rending of a thousand taut cords a hole was torn in the tent roof, the interior was filled with streaks of flame and smoke and flying objects, a choking odor filled the air with stinging fumes and through it all came groans, screams and curses in a hideous melody. Wounded men some with limbs in splints, some half covered with bandages, leaped or tumbled out of their cots, and sought imagined shelter anywhere. Some limped or crawled outside. Some lay still and prayed aloud. Another bomb fell that was a second clean miss of the main tent, though it struck the corner of the medical supplies tent and scattered the Major’s personal effects beyond recovery. Two other bombs came down in quick succession, one in the road beyond, cutting a hind tire, lifting the top off of the last ambulance in the line and knocking down two sentries. The fifth bomb went wild and did no harm. Those who still had their eyes on the murderous thing aloft saw it turn eastward and rise beyond the reach of the guns. There was much work of a very serious nature during the next few hours and then a night of running back and forth. The first streaks of a murky dawn witnessed the evacuation hospital nearly empty and ready for new cases. Two lads in a rain-soaked and mud-bespattered ambulance, carrying a cheerful soldier whose only need was a week of rest, stopped by the roadside on the way to Paris--and, with their passenger’s consent, rolled up in blankets on floor and seat to sleep the sleep of the just fagged. CHAPTER XIII WASH “My boy, I want to commend you, for your aid when they bombed us last week. Haven’t had a chance to before. If all of the fellows had been as cool and as helpful as you and that little, red-headed Irishman we would have had less trouble straightening things out. I see he is running his own car now. Who is your helper?” So spoke Major Little, when he came out of the operating room to get a breath of fresh air, and said to Don. “I guess I’ll get a colored chap, if I get any,” the boy replied. “A lot of new cars have come over and they want men. I can get along alone. Some of the fellows do.” “Better to have company. Helps the _morale_. Gives a chance of aid if one fellow gets hit. Better all round. It is the policy of the service; but we can’t always get what we want.” “Glad you didn’t have to move after all, Doctor.” “No, but the expectation now is that the move will come farther north--against the British. Or it may be to the south. If so, some of you fellows will have to be transferred to that sector and it will give us a little rest here.” “I guess you won’t be sorry, sir. You have worked hard.” “Yes, pretty hard--right along. We of the Medical Department and of the Red Cross got into it before our fighters did. But the time has come now.” “I’d like to see some of our boys get busy in a big way. I wish I could have joined the army.”